PwC publishes BAME pay gap

PwC has revealed that its Black, Asian and minority ethnic employees are paid, on average, 13 per cent less than their white colleagues as the professional services firm becomes one of the first organisations to reveal its BAME pay gap.

The move is part of a drive by PwC to 'shine the spotlight on ethnicity in the workplace and encourage organisations to take action', according to chairman Kevin Ellis. PwC was also one of the first organisations to voluntarily report its gender pay gap analysis in 2014.

Ellis added: 'We need to start looking beyond the narrow lens of gender, otherwise true workplace diversity won't be achieved. While progress has been made, many barriers still exist in today's businesses which means people aren't able to reach their full potential. The more we understand what these barriers are and why they exist, the quicker we'll be able to work towards creating truly inclusive organisations.'

The firm's own analysis reveals that the pay gap is entirely driven by the fact that there are more non-BAME staff in senior high paid roles and more BAME staff in junior administrative roles. When these factors are stripped away, the BAME pay gap shrinks to 2.9 per cent. PwC also stressed that employees with the same job title and responsibilities would be paid the same, irrespective of ethnicity.

PwC currently employs almost 18,000 employees, of whom slightly fewer than 4,000 - around one in five - are of BAME ethnicity. The firm also revealed that it has more female partners (167) than ethnic ones (67), although 145 of its 889 partners failed to declare their ethnicity. Fewer than ten per cent of directors are of an ethnic background.

However, the report shows changes are afoot. Roughly one in three associates come from a BAME background: a similar proportion is recorded among senior associates. 'Our priority is to do all we can to retain our junior BAME talent and improve rates of progression to senior management level,' said Ellis. 'We're aiming to achieve this through stronger accountability across our business to deliver our gender and ethnicity targets, monitoring our pipelines on a more regular basis and making sure that all of our people benefit from the most stretching of client engagements.'